The piece of the Partnership's site that stood out to me most is probably the diagram that is used to show the 21st century student outcomes and skills. Take a look.
What this diagram represents is very simple. At the root of all classroom learning is teacher preparedness. I see it breaking down with these four questions:
- Has the teacher created a positive environment to cultivate learning?
- Is the teacher continually adding to expertise through professional development?
- Is curriculum and instruction both rigorous and engaging?
- Does this instruction hit the targeted standards in a way that can be assessed to monitor student growth?
I suppose my only real issue with what P21 has to say involves standardized testing. I recognize the need for quality assessment, but I do not see how standardized testing is providing the data that we in education claim we want. Let me explain my position. Through my education and my career, the pieces of education that have stood out to me have been the following:
- Students have different styles of learning.
- Students have different abilities.
- Students have interests.
I enjoyed looking through the P21 site. What it shows me is that I have been on the right track in my short career. The first step is having prepared teachers in the classroom. I could go off on a tangent about how to make sure that we have high quality teachers in the classroom, but that is for another conversation. Once we have effective teachers in the classroom, the most important thing is to make sure students are learning the core material, and through that they will be able to learn the much needed skills to be successful in the 21st century. It is comforting to see an organization recognize that education is about more than just the teachers in the classroom. It must be a collective effort of teachers, administrators, policy-makers, and parents. I am looking forward to Indiana joining the P21 list of state leadership initiatives.
For more information on P21, visit http://www.p21.org/
Mr. Cooper,
ReplyDeleteHow many times has something been in front of us and we don’t see it? I never thought if it, “Why do we give students the same standardized achievement tests when they all learn different?” One thing I will mention, in Connecticut, the test is given over many days and contains many different assessment styles.
I agree that students need to have a solid ground in the core subjects. I would like to know why computers, or something similar, is not listed as a core subject. I should be able to ask any one of the eighth graders to enter the data collected from their project in Excel and express it in a table or graph. Unfortunately, many cannot do this. My feeling is that teachers that teach core subjects have their hands full and shouldn’t have to worry about 21st century skills. Yes, they can incorporate these skills in the lessons, however, their main objective is the core subject. I can see how 21st century skills could be included in computer or similar classes if it were a core subject.
I teach Technology in a middle school wood shop and follow the ITEA standards for technology literacy. I compared the standards with the list of 21st century skills and noticed that they overlap. My lessons involve applying what they learn in the core subjects and using 21st century skills to develop a solution or answer.
Mr. Kuziak,
DeleteI understand what you are saying. I believe that the reason why computers are not placed within the core is that teachers are presumed to know how to incorporate all of these different tools into their lessons. Case in point, my corporation spent a ridiculous amount of money over the previous three years for our 1-to-1 initiate at the middle and high school level. What they failed to do, however, is train teachers in how to use these tools to guide students. For many of my colleagues, our Netbooks are just word processors. I tried to do something similar to what you said you would like to do in your class. Instead of getting a pat on the back from my principal for teaching my students how to keep a database of information on their reading, I was told I should have already had the database prepared so students could access it. I was "wasting time". It is all very frustrating.
I too am unsure why so many people drag their feet on this. In fact, I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who disagrees that these skills are important to a student's future success. It seems to come down to time, money, and fear. Time is limited by what we already have stacked on our plate to accomplish. Money limits the access we have to technology and the support we need to go with implementation at district and state levels. And fear of both technology and of the uncertainty of teaching skills that have not been required before. The sad part is that none of these three issues should be issues when it comes to the future of our nation, especially fear. However, we continue to get hung up on one or all of these (and more) and find ourselves moving at a snails pace while the world moves forward around us.
ReplyDeleteI too fear more testing. I also see that education system does not seem to move forward unless threatened by things like testing. Additionally, we need to know whether students are learning what we teach. I am not sure the current testing method is the way to go though. I believe that we may never come up with accurate enough tests until all students have a USB adapter inserted in their head to get a read out of their understanding. Until then, we will just have to do our best with what is being thrown at us.
This is how I have thought about education over the last five years. "Every student has their own learning style. We must cultivate that. Each student has different interests. We must explore these. Oh, by the way, let's make sure all of the students can pass the exact same test that does not allow for individual differences in ability, interest, or learning style. Now go get 'em." Perhaps I am a bit negative, but it is very frustrating.
DeleteI know assessment is necessary, but I believe it must be more diverse than the current standardized test. Otherwise, we are just creating more issues for our students.